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“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” Bob Dylan sang. But these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the coming week.

The boys of summer are back. Some in pinstripes, some in full-metal jackets and some in full James Franco. This is the season when studios seek a home-run hitter who can fill the seats from June to fall. With a roster of veteran sluggers competing for glory with some noted rookies rising from the minors, this year’s lineup makes the multiplex a veritable field of movie dreams. (Opening dates are subject to change.)

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” Bob Dylan sang. But these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what’s on the radar screen in TV, music and film for the coming week.

This has been a good year for films, many of which tackle important themes — sacrifice, loss, the bad luck of unrewarded talent — in a lighthearted way and some of which look at human evil in a way that is almost torturous.

Ho, ho, ho-hum. The holiday season has turned into a matter of Hobbit, with the predictably ambitious Oscar contenders pacing the green room awaiting their bows and the seat-holders looking for a window of opportunity.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Jennifer Lawrence will not only star in the upcoming film adaptation of Jeanette Walls’ 2005 bestselling memoir The Glass Castle, the project will also mark her first time as a producer.

If Christopher Plummer’s famous Captain Von Trapp ever wandered out of The Sound of Music and into La Traviata, there’s no doubt what song he would have broken into: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Violetta? That’s because Violetta is the character at the crux of La Traviata, Verdi’s — and one of opera’s — most enduring, and popular creations still, 160 years after its 1853 debut.